# drc - Monday 28 November, 2011

The African country could be plunged into violence again if it is unable to agree on the results of the presidential and legislative election – the first government-led elections since the end of the last war.

# drc - Friday 27 August, 2010

ATROCITIES CARRIED OUT in Democratic of Congo (DRC) over a 10 year period have been classed as war crimes by the United Nations, according to a leaked draft report.

The report says that the Rwandan army could be responsible for carrying out genocide against members of the Hutu tribe in DRC, during a conflict between the two countries that spanned from 1993 to 2003.

The 600-page document outlines how Hutus were the victims of rape, murder and looting at the hands of Rwandan forces. It details how large numbers of Hutu families were rounded up and violently killed with hoes, hammers and axes, or burned alive.

It concludes that most of the victims were women, children, the elderly and the infirm.

Rwanda has blasted the findings, dismissing them as “rubbish” and an “amateurish NGO job”, according to various reports. The Rwandan government is likely to find the report highly embarrassing as it is attempting to detach itself from its own bloody past and present Rwanda as a modern country.

The extent of the crimes and the large number of victims, probably in the several tens of thousands, are demonstrated by the numerous incidents detailed in the report. The extensive use of non-firearms, particularly hammers, and the systematic massacres of survivors after camps were taken prove that the number of deaths cannot be put down to the margins of war. Among the victims were mostly children, women, old and ill people.

Angolan rebels are also implicated for raping and looting during the invasion.

A spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights, Rupert Colville, has said that the leaked document was only a draft and that the final report (due to be published next month) would be likely to contain revisions.

However, Rwanda reportedly urging the UN to retract some of the more serious allegations contained within the report. If the changes in the final report prove to be significant, the UN could be accused of submitting to the pressure.

# drc - Thursday 26 August, 2010

THE UN SAYS ITS TROOPS could not have prevented the alleged mass rape of around 200 women and boys in the Democratic Republic of Congo because they didn’t know it was happening.

The women and children were assaulted during a four-day siege on Luvungi town by rebels. Peacekeepers passed through the area twice, but were told that roadblocks were being set up, and did not interfere.

Fighters from a Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (DFLR) and local Mai-Mai militia groups occupied Luvungi, just outside the country’s capital Kigali, on July 3o.

The first reports were issued by International Medical Corps, which said it deployed an emergency response team to the area as soon as the security situation permitted it. The health risks facing the victims are clear from their statement:

Although post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) kits for preventing HIV were immediately available at the International Medical Corps clinic, only two survivors had arrived at the health center within 72 hours of sexual assault, the timeframe during which PEP for HIV may be administered.

For survivors who sought services within 120 hours of sexual assault, emergency contraception (EC) was provided. Survivors were also provided presumptive treatment for sexually transmitted infections, as well as wound care.

[caption id="attachment_15484" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="In this undated image supplied by Doctors Without Borders or Medicins Sans Frontieres, a rape victim is photographed at a clinic in Western Kasai, Congo."][/caption]

Rape as a weapon

Sexual violence and rape are known to be used as weapons in the militia conflict because of the devastating effects of sexual assault on families and communities. The east of the country continues to suffer militia violence despite the end of the country’s five-year war in 2003, the BBC reports.

One Congolese mother spoke in May of the terrible choice offered to her and other women by rebels:

The rebel leader asked me two things: “Do you want us to be your husbands? Or do you want us to rape you?” I chose to be raped.

I told old myself, if I tell them that I want to be their wife, they will kill my husband. I didn’t want my children growing up saying the one that made our father die is our mother.

After they raped me, my husband hated me. He said I was dirty. I often ask myself: “Surely, I gave up my dignity for him, how come he can abandon me this way?”

Women and children should not have to live in fear of rape. Communities should not suffer the indignity of knowing that human rights abusers and war criminals can continue to behave with impunity.

Yesterday, a statement from Ban said he had instructed the UN special representative for sexual violence in conflict, former EU Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, to take charge of the UN’s response to the mass rapes in Luvungi.

# drc - Thursday 29 July, 2010

138 PEOPLE HAVE died after an overloaded boat capsized in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reuters reports. The accident occurred during bad weather some 300km from Kinshasa. River and air transport are often the only options for Congolese travellers due to the poor condition of the country’s rail and road network.

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